Music of Chrono Cross

Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Yasunori Mitsuda
Released	December 18, 1999 June 29, 2005
Genre	Ambient, Classical, Downtempo, Electronic, Minimal,[5] Video game music
Length	2:53:51
Label	DigiCube Square Enix (re-release)

The Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack of the music from Chrono Cross, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. The soundtrack spans three discs and 67 tracks, covering a duration of 3 hours. It was published by DigiCube on December 18, 1999, and reprinted by Square Enix on June 29, 2005.[6]

Xenogears contributor Tomohiko Kira played guitar on the beginning and ending themes. Noriko Mitose, selected for the role by Masato Kato, sang the ending song "Radical Dreamers ~ Unstolen Jewel ~".[1] Ryo Yamazaki, a synthesizer programmer for Square Enix, helped Mitsuda transfer his ideas to the PlayStation's sound capabilities.[2] The soundtrack has been described as having "some of the most haunting melodies known to man".[6] The "Home World" tracks from the soundtrack have been termed "emotional", "driving" and "striking", while the "Another World" tracks are described as "slower", "dreamier", and more "serene" than their counterparts.[7]

The soundtrack won the Gold Prize for Sony's PlayStation Awards of 2000.[8] It reached #72 on the Japan Oricon charts on its first print and #174 when reprinted.[9][10] It was praised by reviewers such as Patrick Gann of RPGFan, who called it his favorite video game music soundtrack of all time and especially praised the vocals in "Radical Dreamers ~ Unstolen Jewel ~".[6] This high opinion was echoed by Don Kotowski of Square Enix Music Online, who called it "one of Mitsuda's best, both in and out of [the] context" of the game and said that it "surpasses his Chrono Trigger soundtrack". He singled out "Scars of Time" and "Radical Dreamers" as especially worthy of praise.[7] IGN, in their review of the game, termed the soundtrack "a brilliant score" that "does wonders in stirring the emotional strings of the players as they're playing through the game". IGN praised the technical sound quality of the soundtrack as well, though they did comment that for them no specific tracks stood out as especially memorable.[11] In a separate piece about Japanese RPG composers, however, IGN called "Scars of Time" and "Arni Village - Home World" as two of Mitsuda's most memorable tracks in naming him the second best out of ten behind Nobuo Uematsu.[12]

Track listing

Chrono Cross Music Selection is a mini-album of Chrono Cross music that was released in North America exclusively as a bonus for pre-ordering Chrono Cross. The five-track disc was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, has a length of 15:47[13] and was published by Square along with the game on August 15, 2000. Although the release of the album sparked rumors that it would be followed by a North American release of the full soundtrack album, Square Enix has not to date published Chrono Cross OST outside Japan.[13]

Patrick Gann enjoyed the album, calling it a "little American gem of VG music", but noted that there is no reason to purchase it now that the full soundtrack is just as easy to obtain, especially given its short length.[13] The five tracks on this album were released on the "Original Soundtrack" with three of the tracks renamed.

In 2005, Mitsuda announced a new arranged album of Chrono Cross music was scheduled for release in July of that year.[14] It did not materialize, though at a Play! A Video Game Symphony concert in May 2006, he revealed it would be out "within the year" and would feature acoustic music.[15] Later in 2006, Mitsuda alleged that the album would actually be released in 2007.[16] In 2008, Yasunori Mitsuda posted a streaming sample of a track from the upcoming Chrono Cross arranged album.[17] Though no official release date was announced, Mitsuda more than once stated that the album would be planned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the game's original release in 2009.[17] Mitsuda claimed that the album was "nearly done", but that it may not be possible to release it before the year was out.[18]

On a live performance at the Tokyo Dome in July 2015 commemorating the 20-year anniversary of Chrono Trigger, Mitsuda announced that the long requested Chrono series arrangement album, entitled To Far Away Times: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album would be released. This was eventually released by Square Enix Music on October 14, 2015.[19][20] The album was released on the Square Enix website.[21] A number of the tracks had vocalists to go on top of the score. All tracks were composed by Yasunori Mitsuda.

On September 4, 2019, Square Enix released the album Chrono Cross Orchestral Arrangement, containing eight tracks arranged by Kosuke Yamashita, Mariam Abounnasr, Daisuke Shinoda, and Tomomichi Takeoka, and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. A box set containing the album, a similar album of orchestral arrangements for Chrono Trigger, and a bonus disc of two piano duet arrangements for each game was also released. The album and box set were reviewed by Tien Hoang of VGMOnline, who found it to be a short album of uncreative arrangements that stuck closely to the original compositions. He found the piano arrangements in the box set to be better, but uneven.[22][23]

An album of piano arrangements was published by Wayô Records on February 4, 2021 as Across the Worlds – Chrono Cross Wayô Piano Collections.[24] Wayô licensed the music from Mitsuda's Procyon Studio and funded the production through a June 2020 Kickstarter campaign; the arrangements were done by former Square Enix composer Masashi Hamauzu, Akio Noguchi, and Mariam Abounnasr from Procyon Studios, and were performed by Benyamin Nuss.[25] The album contains seventeen tracks across two discs, with a total length of 1:24:38. It was reviewed by Tien Hoang of VGMOnline, who found it a solid and well-performed album, but was disappointed that the arrangements were not more complex and creative.[24] Patrick Gann of RPGFan, however, praised the "advanced, meandering, and nuanced arrangements" as highlighting the different arrangers' styles rather than straightforward conversions of the melodies to piano, though he found the medleys and track selection to be a missed opportunity.[26]